.
With Halloween several days behind us now and Christmas commercials rapidly consuming the airwaves, I figured now would be a good time to close off on my month of horror films (that and this makes a good follow-up to Jandy’s previous post – it’s almost like we planned it!). Well, the writing about them anyway – I’ve still got piles of stuff to watch and intend on continuing through November and December with them (though mixing in all the other stuff I’ve put on hold such as O’Horten – I’ve been wanting to see it ever since it was the only choice I didn’t get at TIFF 2008).

So, to sum up: 47 horror movies in 31 days. I’m pretty happy with that even if my eyes do look a bit like Drac’s above. They were all first time viewings, covered a pretty wide swath across the different types of horror films and, for the most part, provided a great deal of fun. I do often wonder about the word “fun” in conjunction with horror – should I really be smiling, laughing and having a grand old time watching people get stabbed, carved up and mutilated to tiny bits? Well, yeah…A good horror movie can toy with you, engage you in creative stories and get you invested in their characters. Horrible things can happen, but the knowledge that it’s not happening to YOU (nor is it actually happening to anyone for real) can actually make you somewhat, if I may say, giddy.

My list of need-to-see horror hasn’t shrunk after gorging on it though – it’s probably grown by close to double the amount I actually watched simply because of recommendations from others and new films that I found after doing some digging on the ones I saw. I’m not complaining – it’s not really a bad problem to have.

Here’s a few more thoughts on some of the good and bad experiences I had towards the end of one of my favourite (and most giddy) months of the year:

.

Favourites

.

Lisa And The Devil (1974 – Mario Bava)
This is one beautiful film…There’s not really a lot to the plot, the dialog is iffy at best and the acting spotty, but the style, the look and the feel is impeccable. Elke Sommers plays a tourist who wanders into a shop owned by Telly Savalas. She has an odd feeling about being there and sees a resemblance between Telly and a rendering of the devil she has just seen on a painting on a city wall (and who hasn’t noticed that, eh?). Upon walking out of the shop, she finds herself now in a city that seems to be completely abandoned. Eventually finding a rich couple and their chauffeur, she gets a lift for help until they break down outside a large mansion. They meet the blind woman and her son who live there as well as the butler who just happens to be, wait for it, Telly Savalas. Things don’t go so well for several of the guests from there on. I love Bava’s films because from one scene to the next you really don’t know what kind of colour palette he may be using and how he may incorporate the sets into his shots. That alone makes it an entertaining film, but the slow creep and the goofy charm add a great deal more. Sommers barely speaks in the film and that strangely works in her favour – it just adds to the feeling that she is just a pawn in a larger game being played out.

Of particular interest with this film is that it was later re-packaged as “The House Of Exorcism” with additional footage shot by producer Alfredo Leone (with bits of help from Bava if I understand correctly). Though I haven’t watched this re-cut version yet, it apparently threw in scenes of possessions (to lure in fans of “The Exorcist”) as well as female nudity (to lure in fans of, well, female nudity). All reports say that it is a mess and nowhere near the original concept Bava put together for Lisa. Of course, it made a great deal more money.

.

A Blade In The Dark (1983 – Lamberto Bava)
Bava Junior steps up for a film that is pretty typical giallo fare (Italian crime thrillers mixed with horror elements). Stylish and with slow building scenes complete with tense repetitive music, Bava brings a great deal of fun to the proceedings. The blood is bright red, the death scenes are spaced as expected throughout and the killer will only be revealed at the end (though it’s another case where it’s not overly difficult to guess where the story is going). Unfortunately, it does hold true to other some giallo characteristics – the women in the film aren’t given very intelligent things to say or do and simply don’t meet very happy endings (though at least the opposite sex doesn’t walk away scot free this time either). The most egregious example is that of the one strong female character in the movie – the film director. For her film within the film, she needs to work with a male musician who is scoring her production and one evening at his place the two of them get spooked. Just in case you had been thinking that she could take care of herself and was in a position of power, the film undercuts her and has her say to the composer, “I’m starting to realize that as a woman, I’m a physical coward”. It’s been a long standing issue I’ve had with many of these films, though I have to say I kinda laughed out loud at that particular line – did they realize they were being that obvious?. If you can manage to get past that aspect of the film, though, it’s really quite well handled and provides some very good set pieces.

.

Frightmare (1974 – Peter Walker)
I love these little 70s horror gems that just seem to pop up on my radar from time to time. For some reason, when this came to my doorstep, I thought it was an 80s flick (ala “Fright Night” – which would’ve been just fine), but it’s a much slower burn than that style. Filled with really strong performances, wonderful setups and framing, it winds up with a final forced decision on one person’s part that is the most horrific thing in the whole story. It’s based around a couple who are sent away to an asylum due to the predilections of one of them – specifically, Dorothy likes to eat the brains of her victims. Years later, the couple have been released, live on a remote farm and their daughter and step-daughter live in the city. But Dorothy is getting hungry again…

.

Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968 – Freddie Francis)
Another Hammer Dracula and another great looking, slow-paced (though not boring) and overall entertaining hour and a half. Hammer horrors aren’t the most frightening time you’ll have at the movies, but they are incredibly consistent in their approach. I love how Francis shades the edges of the screen orange when Dracula is looming and gives you plenty of Christopher Lee. He’s hugely fun here especially when he gets those bloodshot eyes. In the end, I think only one or two people actually get attacked, but the threat is ever-present.

.

Drag Me To Hell (2009 – Sam Raimi)
OK, I could have done without some of the CGI effects and a few of the many scenes of bodily fluids, but now I understand the praise thrown at Raimi’s return to horror – it’s a hell of a good time. Alison Lohman’s young bank employee (aiming for the assistant manager’s title) turns down an old hag’s extension request on a loan and forecloses on her house. Suddenly she finds herself cursed and with 3 days left before her soul is taken to hell. In the mean time, she’ll be haunted and terrorized by spirits unless she can figure out how to reverse the curse. Raimi throws gross moments, fake scares, sudden scares, slow building tension, high anxiety thrills and humour at the screen and most of it works. The CGI is a bit more hit and miss – some of it meshes with the live action quite well and some of it sticks out like, well, bad CGI. Still, the film doesn’t miss a beat and flies by in no time flat.

.

Dorothy Mills (2009 – Agnes Merlet)
A surprisingly effective ghost story that takes place on a remote Irish island. A young girl is accused of assaulting her charge while she babysat and a psychiatrist from the city takes the case. Of course there are secrets a-plenty in the village and it occasionally gives off the vibe of The Wicker Man, but there are even further secrets within the village as well. The lovely Carice van Houten plays the doctor as sharp, perceptive, perhaps a bit too empathetic (she has her own reasons for wanting to save this girl which make her more susceptible to the ghostly presences) and very foreign to the islanders. It’s beautifully shot and paced and leads to disturbing revelations. I hadn’t even heard of this film previously to seeing it on the rental shelves, so I’m glad I took a chance on it.

.
.

Not so Much

.

When Evil Calls (2006 – Johannes Roberts)
Absolutely terrible. Lionsgate should really be ashamed of themselves trying to pass this off as a movie. The 20 little 3 minute episodes within the movie were initially all made as short features for mobile devices (with the common setting of a school and teenagers who get a text message informing them they get a wish) and the film wraps all the stories within a framing device of a janitor speaking to the camera. Just everything about this was completely awful. Drivel as a matter of fact. The writing of the 20 episodes consisted mainly of statements – there’s no dialog and no characters, just fat people wanting to be thin or homely girls wanting to be beautiful. Of course, the wishes don’t end up exactly as they planned, but the results were never clever or even particularly original. Only occasionally bearable because of Sean Pertwee and Dominique Pilon’s delivery of their lines (how the hell did those two get suckered into this?). The “humour” caused numerous depressed sighs from me throughout the entire overly long 74 minutes – it was obvious, poorly timed and terribly delivered. I should’ve just stopped the damn thing. No screencaps for you “When Evil Calls”…Someone might think you were an actual movie. I can’t risk that.

.

Gong Tau: An Oriental Black Magic (2007 – Herman Yau)
Director Yau (according to IMDB) has 48 credits to his name in the last 16 years. So at a rate of 3 directorial jobs a year, you’re bound to have some fluctuation in what works and what doesn’t. This particular production falls somewhere below the line…While investigating the murder of a fellow policeman, a detective’s wife and child are subjected to Gong Tau – an ancient form of black magic – by a mysterious presence. The child dies, his wife is half insane and confined to a hospital and the detective has to grapple with his past in order to solve all the mysteries hanging over him. It all doesn’t quite work, even if Lau does have a good eye for scenery and colours. The actress playing the wife gets a really terrible role – all she does is whine and scream and cry and moan. Granted, if I was cursed by some black magic, I’m likely not going to be skipping down the sidewalk humming a sunny tune, but it makes for a great deal of irritation whenever her character is on screen. The tone of the rest of the characters is never quite right either. Is this a world where black magic is accepted or not? I couldn’t quite tell from the different reactions. It all ends in too much coincidence, too much silliness and far too much ambivalence towards the characters. By the way, if you think Yau’s output is significant, one of his actors in the film (Suet Lam) has been in 100 films in the last 10 years. If you’ve seen a Johnnie To film, you’ve seen him, but I can’t seem to get away from the guy. He’s everywhere!

.

Mother Of Tears (2007 – Dario Argento)
Well, that certainly was a wholly unpleasant experience…Argento’s concluding chapter in his “Three Mothers” trilogy (Suspiria and Inferno being parts one and two – from 30 years ago) is overly serious, terribly dull at times and extraordinarily cruel. There’s barely a drop of fun to be had. Of course, it’s supposed to be a horror film and usually people die in horrific ways, but there was just something additionally nasty about the deaths in this film – particularly the women. The term misogynistic can get thrown around too often, but I’m tempted to use it here. The initial gutting of Asia Argento’s workmate and the later impaling of another female friend felt overly vicious and didn’t seem to jibe with the tone of the film. Suspiria was gorgeous to look at and a solid example of how to keep your audience on the edge of their seat. This was neither.